Embodiments of the inventive concept relate to various semiconductor devices, and more particularly, to semiconductor devices including an anti-fuse circuit that operates in accordance with a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) breakdown.
Fuses and/or anti-fuses are used in many different types of semiconductor devices, particularly semiconductor memory devices. The fuse is an element that is turned OFF when one or more condition(s) is satisfied. In contrast, the anti-fuse is an element that is turned ON when one or more condition(s) is satisfied. Among a great variety of other uses, the fuse and/or anti-fuse may be used to select an operating mode for a semiconductor device, conditionally enable a circuit, such as a redundancy array when a defective memory cell is identified in a constituent memory cell array.
In recent years, research has been conducted into a technique of using a portion of a magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell array as a fuse circuit. However, with increasing integration density of memory cells within semiconductor memory devices, MRAM cells have been downscaled, and the corresponding volume of tunneling magneto-resistive (TMR) elements included in MRAM cells has been is decreased accordingly. Indeed, in certain circumstances, some MRAMs will lose their non-volatile data retention characteristic. Recognizing this possibility, the conventional use of contemporary MRAMs as fuses or anti-fuses is not recommended. Rather, in view of the performance characteristics of the downscaled MRAM cells, new approaches must be considered in the use of a MRAM cell as a fuse or anti-fuse.